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Just some observations from someone who has been involved, off and on for MANY years, in VTR and in VTR conventions.
1. No matter what you (as a host club) plan for or even try to guard against, not everyone will be happy before, during or after. I swear I'm not making the following up. In 1996, the Adirondack Triumph Association hosted its second VTR National convention in the Albany, NY, area. Much of the time, the weather was gorgeous. Unfortunately, Saturday -- "Show" Day -- saw torrential rains from earliest morning through late afternoon, after-effects of Hurricane Bertha. Everyone managed to cope pretty well, even those owners of early sidescreen TR2s who somehow managed to keep their cars as buttoned-up and bailed-out as possible (yeah, the rain was that bad). So did the judges for the Concours, who did their very best to group four cars at a time under the host hotel's main entrance canopy. It was almost enough to keep the cars dry for that moment, although NOT nearly enough to keep all the judges dry as we moved around the cars.
In the midst of all this, someone actually came up to me during the day and, with a straight face and dead-serious attitude, said: "I can't believe you scheduled this convention on the weekend of a hurricane!"
This leads me to my next point....
2. These VTR Conventions, and most any such gathering of their type, take YEARS of planning, organizing and sweating out details. And try as we might, many of those details are simply beyond the control of the host Chapter or VTR. Examples: the above 1996 convention had to be hastily and almost completely rethought less than eight months before it happened, due to the fact that the original host site backed out of the deal. In 1998, a similar situation occurred for Minnesota Triumphs when the planned site saw endless construction delays. That site backed out with only about 6-7 months to go, and the Minn. Triumph folk luckily were able to scramble around and put together what turned out to be a fine event...in another state (albeit the neighbor state of Wisconsin)!
3. Even if planning goes well, sometimes it goes too well. Be it an upturn in the economy, a sharp drop in fuel prices, or just incredibly nice weather for long stretches in the summer...sometimes well-planned events get oversubscribed without warning. It's not easy to (re)plan when you've pretty much figured on attendance of around 200 cars/400 people, and you get HALF AGAIN as much, with most of the additional, un-planned-for people literally being last-minute entrants! And while one might reasonably expect Texas or Georgia to be very warm in summer, one can't plan 2-3 years in advance to avoid a brutal heat wave (or the aforementioned after-effects of a hurricane, or....)!
4. Oh, and not every metropolitan (or other) area has attractive, moderately priced facilities to host those 200+ cars and 400-500 or more people in one spot (or even two or three adjacent spots for overflow or alteratively cheaper housing/camping/whatever). And that's just dealing with a banquet and convention-long parking, not necessarily show grounds, autocross facilities, staging areas for road rallyes, etc., etc. AND, that's just trying to plan for those who are attending for the full length of the convention.
Please don't take this long-winded reply to mean that I don't sympathize with those who might like to show up just for the show; that is not my intent. I admit that I don't see much attraction in paying $50 or more for the privilege of parking my Triumph with or near a bunch of others. Even at current fuel prices, that $50 will keep me on a long drive most of the day, or cover much of the cost of parts to overhaul an axle's worth of brakes, etc.
My point is that no one should be too upset that DVT doesn't feel it is capable of addressing this concept on such short notice. Possibly, those organizers for VTR's 2008 Convention will be able to consider some possibilities.
Full disclosure: I am a charter member (#113; joined in early 1975) of VTR, and a charter member (#30; joined in 1978) of the Adirondack Triumph Association. Off and on I have been very active in both, including terms as President of both.
I have attended a number of VTR National Conventions (although, for various reasons, not since 2002), and I was part of organization, planning and administration of the conventions hosted by ATA in 1989 and 1996.
My first VTR Convention was in 1983 in Uniondale, Long Island (New York). I can honestly say that it was the last one I attended for the primary purpose of drooling over Triumphs. Sure, that's still an attraction for me. One never knows what might be there. In 1983, there were more than a few early TR8 coupes and other interesting "wedges," and in 1985 one of the TRS Le Mans racers, a gorgeous Dolomite saloon and a totally original and pristine Spitfire 4, among other really nice cars. But by that time, I'd already discovered friends that I'd met previously, and they've long since become my primary reason for attending.
Enough ranting from me. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
1. No matter what you (as a host club) plan for or even try to guard against, not everyone will be happy before, during or after. I swear I'm not making the following up. In 1996, the Adirondack Triumph Association hosted its second VTR National convention in the Albany, NY, area. Much of the time, the weather was gorgeous. Unfortunately, Saturday -- "Show" Day -- saw torrential rains from earliest morning through late afternoon, after-effects of Hurricane Bertha. Everyone managed to cope pretty well, even those owners of early sidescreen TR2s who somehow managed to keep their cars as buttoned-up and bailed-out as possible (yeah, the rain was that bad). So did the judges for the Concours, who did their very best to group four cars at a time under the host hotel's main entrance canopy. It was almost enough to keep the cars dry for that moment, although NOT nearly enough to keep all the judges dry as we moved around the cars.
In the midst of all this, someone actually came up to me during the day and, with a straight face and dead-serious attitude, said: "I can't believe you scheduled this convention on the weekend of a hurricane!"
This leads me to my next point....
2. These VTR Conventions, and most any such gathering of their type, take YEARS of planning, organizing and sweating out details. And try as we might, many of those details are simply beyond the control of the host Chapter or VTR. Examples: the above 1996 convention had to be hastily and almost completely rethought less than eight months before it happened, due to the fact that the original host site backed out of the deal. In 1998, a similar situation occurred for Minnesota Triumphs when the planned site saw endless construction delays. That site backed out with only about 6-7 months to go, and the Minn. Triumph folk luckily were able to scramble around and put together what turned out to be a fine event...in another state (albeit the neighbor state of Wisconsin)!
3. Even if planning goes well, sometimes it goes too well. Be it an upturn in the economy, a sharp drop in fuel prices, or just incredibly nice weather for long stretches in the summer...sometimes well-planned events get oversubscribed without warning. It's not easy to (re)plan when you've pretty much figured on attendance of around 200 cars/400 people, and you get HALF AGAIN as much, with most of the additional, un-planned-for people literally being last-minute entrants! And while one might reasonably expect Texas or Georgia to be very warm in summer, one can't plan 2-3 years in advance to avoid a brutal heat wave (or the aforementioned after-effects of a hurricane, or....)!
4. Oh, and not every metropolitan (or other) area has attractive, moderately priced facilities to host those 200+ cars and 400-500 or more people in one spot (or even two or three adjacent spots for overflow or alteratively cheaper housing/camping/whatever). And that's just dealing with a banquet and convention-long parking, not necessarily show grounds, autocross facilities, staging areas for road rallyes, etc., etc. AND, that's just trying to plan for those who are attending for the full length of the convention.
Please don't take this long-winded reply to mean that I don't sympathize with those who might like to show up just for the show; that is not my intent. I admit that I don't see much attraction in paying $50 or more for the privilege of parking my Triumph with or near a bunch of others. Even at current fuel prices, that $50 will keep me on a long drive most of the day, or cover much of the cost of parts to overhaul an axle's worth of brakes, etc.
My point is that no one should be too upset that DVT doesn't feel it is capable of addressing this concept on such short notice. Possibly, those organizers for VTR's 2008 Convention will be able to consider some possibilities.
Full disclosure: I am a charter member (#113; joined in early 1975) of VTR, and a charter member (#30; joined in 1978) of the Adirondack Triumph Association. Off and on I have been very active in both, including terms as President of both.
I have attended a number of VTR National Conventions (although, for various reasons, not since 2002), and I was part of organization, planning and administration of the conventions hosted by ATA in 1989 and 1996.
My first VTR Convention was in 1983 in Uniondale, Long Island (New York). I can honestly say that it was the last one I attended for the primary purpose of drooling over Triumphs. Sure, that's still an attraction for me. One never knows what might be there. In 1983, there were more than a few early TR8 coupes and other interesting "wedges," and in 1985 one of the TRS Le Mans racers, a gorgeous Dolomite saloon and a totally original and pristine Spitfire 4, among other really nice cars. But by that time, I'd already discovered friends that I'd met previously, and they've long since become my primary reason for attending.
Enough ranting from me. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
